Arbitration law in Qatar: the way forward.

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AL-OBAIDLI, J.M.A.A. 2016. Arbitration law in Qatar: the way forward. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

Abstract

Qatar is among the fastest growing developing countries in all fields. Since the State of Qatar gained independence from the United Kingdom, the Qatari government has been focusing on the formation of state institutions to keep pace with global development. In 1971, Qatar released the first civil and commercial law. The country established the first step towards the separation of civil and commercial transactions of Islamic law. However, the ever-changing nature of business and global economy requires significant economic and societal changes. With the increase of foreign investors in Qatar, there had to be a law governing arbitration in contracts. Therefore, the government promulgated the arbitration clause in commercial contracts; the first code of civil and commercial procedure contains a chapter of the arbitration. However, the provisions of arbitration included in this law are not compatible with the UNCITRAL Model Law. Although there is a shortage in literature regarding arbitration in Qatar, several studies discussed issues related to arbitration in Qatar and called for the adoption of a new separate arbitration law in Qatar compatible with the UNCITRAL one. This prompted Qatar to work on a new draft law of arbitration, especially after the ratification of the New York Convention 1985 by Qatar. However, these studies did not cover other factors which affect arbitration; such as cultural attitude towards arbitration and issues affecting the practice of arbitration in Qatar.
Unlike previous studies regarding arbitration in Qatar, this thesis uses multi-methods to get an answer of the main question of the research, which is: “Will the new Arbitration Draft Law solve all the issues related to arbitration in Qatar, thereby attracting international companies to Qatar and its law for their arbitration?” The thesis reviews the related literature in the first stage. Then it analyses interviews which were held with a number of arbitration stakeholders, the recent Qatari draft law of arbitration, the GCC unified arbitration draft law and the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) draft law. After that it conducts a comparison between the current provisions of arbitration, the Qatari arbitration draft law and the GCC unified arbitration draft law in light of the UNCITRAL Model Law and the Egyptian Arbitration Law.
This multi-methods study results in recommendations which are listed in its conclusion. It is worth mentioning that both the Qatari arbitration draft law and the QFC draft law are considered for the first time in a research study. Also, the interviews which were held for the purpose of this research enrich the outcome as the participants were chosen from various categories of arbitration stakeholder, where some of them represent official entities; such as the Legislation Department of the Ministries Council and some of them are high ranking officials of these entities; such as the Minister of Justice.

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